The present disclosure relates to a recording head having an ink ejection port for ejecting ink onto a recording medium such as a sheet, and also relates to an inkjet recording apparatus including the same.
An inkjet recording apparatus that ejects ink to form an image is capable of forming a high-definition image and thus is widely used as a recording apparatus such as a facsimile, a copy machine, or a printer.
In such an inkjet recording apparatus, minute ink droplets (hereinafter, referred to as a mist) ejected together with ink droplets for image recording and a rebounded mist generated upon adhesion of the ink droplets to a recording medium adhere to, and solidify on, an ink ejection surface of a recording head. When the mist on the ink ejection surface gradually increases to form a pile in the ink ejection port, it may cause degradation of the linearity of ink ejection (trajectory deflection), failure of ink ejection, and so on, resulting in degraded printing performance of the recording head.
To solve this problem by cleaning an ink ejection surface of a recording head, a known inkjet recording apparatus is provided with a plurality of cleaning liquid supply ports disposed at a portion of the ink ejection surface on an outer side (an upstream side in a wiping direction of a wiper) of an ink ejection region where a plurality of ink ejection ports are disposed. In this inkjet recording apparatus, after a cleaning liquid is supplied through the cleaning liquid supply ports, the wiper is caused to move from an outer side beyond the cleaning liquid supply ports along the ink ejection surface, so that the wiper can wipe the ink ejection surface while retaining the cleaning liquid. In this manner, a recovery process for the recording head can be performed.